The Mixtape In Your Heart
by butimbroken
Summary: Buffy/Angel. AU. A famous couple who'd split come together again for a friends' special night. COMPLETE.


Tonight Lorne Greene was celebrating his ten year anniversary of being host of one of the most popular late night talk shows across the United States and he was already having a blast. Tonight had been built up for some time now and he had no doubt he'd be killing in the ratings with this particular show. They were also doing it live which was certainly a big change of pace for his show.

The biggest draw was not so much him or his milestone so much as it was the guests he had booked for the night. Buffy Summers and Liam Angelus were returning together and it'd been a media frenzy since they'd even been announced. It was an all eyes on me situation and he knew it.

The pair had been his very first guests all those years ago and it meant a lot for them to return for this historic night for him. He got through the opening of his show before finally turning his attention to who else would soon be joining him. Lorne spoke of these two lovely individuals he'd had the pleasure of becoming friends with over the years before getting into the juicier side of things.

Lorne was all smiles and riling the crowd up as he began to lead them on a journey to years past. He began to tell the tale of the first show and how he'd landed such a big interview on his Day One. He reminded the crowd of the movie that had brought these two individuals together in the first place, how singer Buffy Summers got her big break by being signed into the role alongside the up and coming actor. Lorne drug that out long enough before mentioning the fact that the two young stars had also become a couple during the making of that very movie and that little fact had actually been announced that fateful night ten years ago.

Lorne happily went over some of the pairs' "greatest hits" with that movie and just with them being a couple, he reminded everyone of how much Hollywood and the entire world fell in love with them... and then the entire audience fell into a sad "aww" as he brought up the fact of five years into their romance things had taken a turn and the couple broke up a few times before finally calling it quits. Lorne frowned into the camera and mentioned how upset this had made him- even to this day. Lorne also mentioned he was not alone in that which got another big reaction from the crowd. He played up about the fans and how he knew everyone was secretly always hoping right along with him they'd get back together. He also mentioned a few key moments over the years where the pair had been poked fun at on that same subject over the years from random mentions at award shows to being part of a chorus in a rapper's hit single just a year before.

Lorne made one last quip about how the world may be divided on many things but loving the idea of Buffy and "Angel" seemed to bring the people together before going to break and announcing Buffy would be the first one out when they returned.

OoOoO

Just as it'd been the first time they'd been on together and any following visit Buffy came out first for a few minutes on her own before Angel stepped out to join them. And as every other time he asked Buffy to stay in the seat closest to Lorne's desk and he took a seat on the small love seat beside her after they all exchanged greetings and he smiled and waved at the crowd.

Buffy covered her mouth with her hand as she sat back down, the noise from the in-studio audience reaching new levels tonight. She laughed as she leaned over to Lorne. "That is insane!" she told him before shyly looking back at her ex.

They all let everyone settle down before even attempting to speak any more. "So," Lorne finally said, "it's been... I think it was six years since I had the two of you on here at the same time."

Buffy nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Of course I've seen you plenty of times since then and been on your show more times than anyone probably wants me to be," she joked.

Lorne laughed and waved her off. "Please! You should be a regular guest!" Buffy took the compliment with a big smile. "And Angel, same for you... you've been on countless times... just... not together."

"That is true," Angel replied. "Every time I'm back out this way I try to make sure I have time to stop in."

"And we appreciate that!" Lorne told him, shifting some in his seat. "Do you guys remember the first time you were here?"

A shot from their first appearance came up on the screen and Buffy groaned a little. "Oh, all I see is that hair," she said first, taking the image in. She tapped Angel on the shoulder and looked at him. "Look at us, we were babies!"

"You should put us as a side by side," Angel said. "We can be like that how much have you aged thing on Facebook."

Buffy laughed and nodded. "Yes!" she agreed and they all cracked up as the guys in the back made it happen. "Oh, we need to recreate our poses too, hold on," she said and the two did their best to copy the photo for a long several seconds at a stand still.

OoOoO

The first half of the interview portion of the show was kept pretty light from start to finish then Lorne warned them that could change come the second half.

"Is it true you two haven't seen each other in five years?"

Buffy shook her head. "I mean... there's been times we've seen each other but we've never, like, just hung out or something. There's been a few times we'd been at the same event and we'd see each other on stage or something and a few times I can remember us exchanging quick hello, how are you doing type things, once he was leaving a restaurant in... I don't even remember where it was now actually... but he was leaving and I happened to be just getting there as he was heading out... you know, things like that."

OoOoO

Lorne stopped mid-sentence not long after while embarrassing the two of them by bringing up various times another star would call them out since their split trying to say they need to get back together to mention Angel's reacting to this whole evening. Buffy felt herself turning redder than she had been since she had noticed all the looks coming from him earlier in the night.

Angel chuckled a little. "I feel like I'm almost a cartoon character with giant hearts in my eyeballs or something," he joked. "It is very strange being here! I'm having a very unplanned reaction," he admitted.

Buffy looked over at him and for the first time since they'd sat down she actually kept eye contact with him for more than a few seconds. The fact that the entire room seemed to be holding their breath as they had the moment did not escape her either.

OoOoO

The tail end of the show seemed to have taken on a life of it's own. Lorne hadn't minded one bit, he mostly sat back and let things play out as the two carried on easily with one another with flirting and talking about their past, answering a few questions, and just carrying on conversation as if no time had passed at all.

Lorne dared to bring up their split and Angel just kept staring at her. "I feel like I don't remember a single reason as to why we broke up at the moment," he answered.

Buffy mentally thought back... there'd been nothing huge that you could pinpoint to being the cause of their ending. It was just two young people who were thrust into a spotlight and had a lot to deal with. They had stress, work, time apart, they were fighting more than they should about anything and everything... it just seemed best to take a break... and they did and it sucked and they would come back together... and it seemed they got stuck in a cycle with that for awhile before putting their foot down and saying they needed real time apart. That had been hard- and once she finally made it through a day, then two days, on to a few months and so on it just got harder to think about being sucked right back into it all and kept going the opposite direction until she didn't have to fight to keep her distance and it just became a natural part of her life.

Buffy had mostly pushed all of it out of her mind over the years but right now it was very hard not to think about what could have been the past five years, to think they'd be celebrating ten years of their relationship tonight too if they had stuck it out, maybe they'd be married or have started a family or who knew what.

Buffy also thought about all the wonderful times they'd had together. Meeting Angel had been nothing short of a miracle and had changed her entire world, there was no question to that. And far from only being about the fame side of things but everything in her life had changed with being part of his. She'd always thought he was her one great love and it'd been the best time of her life when she'd been with him but had tried her best to come to terms with it wasn't meant to be forever.

Now... now that wasn't so easy to remember or believe as he sat beside her.

OoOoO

By the time Lorne finally signed off for the night Buffy was sure she resembled a lobster, her face felt so hot after all of this The way he'd looked at her ever since coming out had her emotions all out of whack. She wondered what exactly she was thinking agreeing to do this at this point.

She knew it was bound to stir some things up but it was still surprising to find out just how much it had.

As the show went off the air, Buffy had a feeling she'd been the talk of the town come morning. Especially as Angel grabbed her as they all stood and pulled her closer...

 **The End.**


End file.
